Australia agrees to sell uranium to India, ending a long stalemate

Australia has agreed to sell uranium to India for peaceful purposes, ending a long-standing stalemate over the material's potential use in weapons. The decision was made after the two countries' leaders, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, signed an administrative deal in Melbourne.

The specifics of the uranium sale, such as the quantity and timing, have not been disclosed. The decision comes after a stalemate that began in 2014, when an agreement to sell uranium to India was blocked due to concerns about nuclear proliferation. Australia, which has the world's largest known uranium reserves, does not use nuclear power or possess nuclear weapons and exports all of its uranium.

India, with a population of 1.4 billion people, aims to generate 100 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2047. Despite not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which restricts nuclear weapons to the United States, China, Britain, France, and Russia, India has been purchasing uranium from countries recognized by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a group that includes the U.S. Australia recently granted India a bilateral deal to import uranium, provided the material is under IAEA safeguards and the Indian nuclear programs are separated from its military uses.